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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25960705">Ignorance &amp; Suffering</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanakiBH/pseuds/NanakiBH'>NanakiBH</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy Type-0</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Boyfriends, Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, M/M, Mortality, Past Lives, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reincarnation, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, stoicism</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:54:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,767</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25960705</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanakiBH/pseuds/NanakiBH</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jack/Lean Joker (Final Fantasy Type-0)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ignorance &amp; Suffering</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The title is too similar to my last one... This bothers me. But it feels like the right title, so. I'll just suffer.</p>
<p>It's Jack's birthday! Happy birthday to the cutest, most delightful Final Fantasy boy there is!! May the crystal guide you!! 🎉🥳🎉 </p>
<p>I've been translating some of Final Fantasy Agito (the mobile game) where Lean had more of an active role. You can find that <a href="https://nanakibh.tumblr.com/tagged/ff-agito-translations">over here.</a> So if you're confused and want to know more about him, now you can get to know him! As you might expect from a guy with the "Power of Suffering", he's an emotional dude.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What are we supposed to do...?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	It felt like he'd been asking that question forever, but there weren't many times when he had the opportunity to say it out loud. Most people didn't understand and would've thought he was crazy...</p>
<p>	Jack was just that special type of person who was crazy enough himself to believe him. So when Lean told him that the world had ended before, Jack didn't judge him or jump to conclusions. He just listened. Maybe it was because he made jokes so frequently, he knew when someone wasn't joking.</p>
<p>	The way he acted, it was like he was just acknowledging something he'd already heard before. A part of him might have still remembered what happened from other cycles, so that could've made the news easier to swallow. Lean worried about telling him – he didn't want to make anyone else worry about the end of the world the way that he did... Especially someone as cheerful as Jack. The thought of snuffing out his optimism with the threat of inevitable tragedy was too much to bear.</p>
<p>	But the pain of that knowledge itself was already too much to bear...</p>
<p>	Through the endless spiral of time, Tiz had eventually given up on telling anyone else. She thought it was sufficient to just watch the cadets and support them from the shadows. It felt like the girl he met in the first world had drifted away over time, becoming more withdrawn and distant. It made Lean wonder what Mother thought they could accomplish when she cast them outside the Spiral. He wasn't sure they were contributing anything to the experiment...</p>
<p>	Was there something he was missing?</p>
<p>	Something he was forgetting...?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	Jack sat down on Lean's dorm bed and flopped onto his back. With a look on his face that seemed uncharacteristically serious for him, he stared up at the ceiling with his hands folded over his chest.</p>
<p>	“You said the world's ended like a bajillion times before, right? What <i>can</i> you do?” he said. A beat, then he glanced to his side to where Lean was sitting and gave him a weakly apologetic look. “Uh, sorry, don't take that the wrong way~ What I mean is, uh... Why not, like, accept the hand you've been dealt?”</p>
<p>	Lean didn't understand what he was saying. Of all the things to suggest...</p>
<p>	“And just let the world end?”</p>
<p>	Jack scratched his cheek then gesticulated vaguely with his hand as if gesturing toward his point.</p>
<p>	“Well, it's <i>gonna end,</i> right? I think you just need to change the way you think about it~ It's no different than knowing that the sun will set tonight and rise again tomorrow. You can't change things like that, but you don't panic about it, do you?”</p>
<p>	“That's-...! That's totally different!” Lean said, trying and failing to keep his voice from rising. He didn't like letting anyone see him lose his temper, but sometimes he couldn't help it. He was at his wits' ends; he'd been hoping that Jack could offer a new perspective when he told him, but it sounded like he was just talking nonsense. “Don't you think you're taking this too lightly?”</p>
<p>	“Am I?” Jack seemed genuinely confused, immediately making Lean feel bad for getting worked up. “Do you think that panicking is achieving anything?”</p>
<p>	It felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head.</p>
<p>	Jack was right.</p>
<p>	Lean knew he was right, but...</p>
<p>	How else was he supposed to think about it? The world was going to end again if they didn't think of a way for at least <i>one of them</i> to become Agito! Wasn't Jack supposed to be an Agito cadet? It was in his nature to be lazy – that was something that never changed no matter how many times the world repeated – but Lean couldn't believe that he wouldn't at least try to think of something they could do to save the world. Anything.</p>
<p>	But he couldn't detect even a hint of urgency in him.</p>
<p>	“So, what are you suggesting? That we give up and submit to destiny?” Lean asked.</p>
<p>	Jack waved a finger in the air. “Didn't you mention someone...? That Miyu girl, you said she saw 'potential' in someone. What happened to that person?”</p>
<p>	“I don't know... I haven't seen that person for a long time. I haven't seen Miyu since then, either.” His eyes narrowed as he sunk into thought. “I've thought about it a lot, but I don't know what it means.”</p>
<p>	As if that was that, Jack nodded to himself and closed his eyes, folding his hands back comfortably over his chest. “If they aren't here, then that means that something already changed, right? Maybe we're just waiting for something.”</p>
<p>	“If that's the case, I've been waiting a long time.”</p>
<p>	“Wait a little longer~” Jack said.</p>
<p>	Lean resisted the urge to call him bold for saying something like that. He had half a mind to clobber him, but he was a lover, not a fighter.</p>
<p>	Jack continued, getting <i>bolder</i>, “Better yet, stop telling yourself that you're waiting. If you spend every day thinking about how the world's gonna end and how you're gonna die, then you might as well be dead.”</p>
<p>	Lean couldn't even bring himself to feel mad about a response that over-the-top. He just sat there, staring down at Jack's comfortable face with not a thought in his mind. If nothing else, at least Jack's words had removed the worry from his mind temporarily – along with everything else. For a strange second, Lean felt like he wasn't himself. It was like he was seeing himself from another person's perspective, and he just looked... So damn pathetic and useless.</p>
<p>	He knew that Jack wasn't trying to make him feel bad; he never <i>wanted</i> to hurt anyone. Jack was simply telling him what he saw and what he honestly felt. That was his specialty, after all... With his power, he could see things in an uncomplicated and straightforward way, his mind free from the burden of unnecessary thoughts. The world had to look like an extremely different place to him. Unfortunately, Lean couldn't even imagine.</p>
<p>	The world... It probably looked even more hopeless to him.</p>
<p>	That was what made it so hard. Lean couldn't understand how Jack could be so calm and relaxed when the world around him was dying. If there was some sort of solace to be found in that type of world, then...</p>
<p>	No.</p>
<p>	Did solace even matter? Wasn't that just another form of resignation?</p>
<p>	He didn't want to become comfortable with the fact that the world was going to end as if it was an undeniable fact that they couldn't change.</p>
<p>	But...</p>
<p>	It was hard to deny that it wasn't like that. From the beginning... From that day when he stood on the terrace, staring Mother in the eyes as she told them the truth, he already knew. As a scientist, he understood that the success rate of her experiment was infinitesimally small. She, a god, admitted that from her standpoint, it was already a failure without question. And so, they went headfirst into a dead end.</p>
<p>	It was just human nature to look for hope, wasn't it?</p>
<p>	Unable to resist the cynical thought, Lean wondered what that made Jack.</p>
<p>	That boy was truly unlike any other. It was like as soon as their voices faded into the silence, the subject of their conversation also completely vanished from his thoughts. Eyes closed, he was just smiling serenely as if he didn't have a care in the world. Was it better to be that way? If it was possible to erase the presence of worry entirely from one's consciousness, then it was as if worries didn't exist. Tragedies, suffering, all kinds of painful things... By ignoring them, it was like their existence was invalidated.</p>
<p>	Maybe it wasn't like that...</p>
<p>	It seemed too cruel to think about it that way.</p>
<p>	Even though Jack wasn't able to remember the dead, he didn't pretend like they never existed. He was aware of suffering – more than anyone, maybe. It was for the sake of everyone else he smiled so brightly. He saw everyone's pain and pushed his aside to ease theirs. So he knew. He couldn't have just been ignoring it.</p>
<p>	Jack saw that the world was ending.</p>
<p>	With that realization, Lean felt bad for accusing him of giving up. It wasn't like that at all. Just because he didn't show it, that didn't mean he wasn't worried and afraid. A part of him certainly was... Right?</p>
<p>	Maybe Jack was the biggest mystery in their world...</p>
<p>	Lean couldn't wrap his head around him.</p>
<p>	But Jack could apparently wrap both arms around him while he wasn't paying attention.</p>
<p>	Gradually, Lean found himself being pulled down onto the bed with one clingy boy stuck to his side. He was smiling, looking as cozy as could be, but it didn't seem like he was falling asleep. He was very awake and very aware of what he was doing. He nuzzled his cheek against Lean's chest and lifted his head to give him a little kiss on the jaw. It was just one kiss at first, but then it was another and another, traveling toward his lips.</p>
<p>	Rolling over into his embrace, facing him, Lean brought up a hand and Jack's lips collided with his palm before they could make it to his mouth.</p>
<p>	“Jack, what are you doing?”</p>
<p>	“Hmm...” He pretended to look puzzled, but he was smiling too hard to be taken seriously. “I believe this is what's called 'cuddling.'”</p>
<p>	Just, for once in his life, Lean wished that Jack could be serious. Lean knew that he was capable. The things he believed in may have seemed simple to him, but Lean wanted him to spell them out in a way that anyone could understand. Was his perspective really that far away from everyone else's? Was it that unique, that it couldn't even be understood by someone else?</p>
<p>	Wasn't he supposed to be an idiot?</p>
<p>	Lean looked at himself. Wasn't <i>he</i> supposed to be a genius? That must've been some kind of dumb joke.</p>
<p>	He just sighed. “...Why are we 'cuddling', though? I was seriously trying to come up with an answer.”</p>
<p>	“This is an answer,” Jack said, resting his cheek back down on Lean's chest. One of his hands idly played with the red tie of his cape. For a second, Lean found himself distracted by the image. It was like a moment out of time – something he previously only would've seen in a dream. Something had possessed him to reach out during that cycle. He joined them and even took up their uniform... Although a part of him refused to think of him as 'one of them', he loved the image of their reds together.</p>
<p>	Just by being himself, Jack was distracting him away from the issue at hand. It couldn't have been intentional, but it was almost as if he was conspiring to make him forget.</p>
<p>	“Sorry, I don't get it,” Lean said. “I guess I'm not as smart as you...”</p>
<p>	“Heheh. Well-... Wait, are you making fun of me?” Jack didn't lift his head, but he did direct an indignant look upward.</p>
<p>	“I'm sure you're trying to make a point, but... I really don't understand.” He stroked his fingers idly through the soft, short hair at the back of Jack's neck. “I don't know how I'm supposed to stop worrying about something like this. This has been my whole life, Jack. I think I reached the point a long time ago where I felt like I couldn't stop holding out hope. The sunk cost fallacy, you know? Now, the thought of giving up at this point scares me just as much as the end of the world itself... Feel free to laugh. I did this to myself, I'm sure. It was my fault for having hope in the first place when I knew from the start that it was hopeless.”</p>
<p>	Jack shifted and pushed himself up onto an elbow. When Lean looked up at him, his heart was paralyzed by the intensity of the emotions in Jack's expression. On those times when he wasn't just smiling, it was like all of his other feelings became visible.</p>
<p>	“Who said you couldn't have hope?”</p>
<p>	“But you said-”</p>
<p>	“I said to stop worrying!”</p>
<p>	Yeah. That was what he said. Lean realized that he probably only had himself to blame for reading too far into the things he said, but...</p>
<p>	“I still don't understand.” He took off his glasses and covered his face with his arm. Jack's eyes made his heart feel like it was disintegrating. “Just tell me, Jack... I just want someone to tell me what to do. I know you don't understand what it's like... I'm tired. I'm tired of this. Nothing I've done has ever helped and I'm tired of just watching as everyone dies. I hate saying goodbye... I hate it now just as much as I hated it the first time.”</p>
<p>	Those were things he'd never told anyone, even Tiz. He was sure that she probably held similar feelings, but that was also why it was hard to talk to her about it. If she was dealing with it, too, then it didn't really help to talk about it. The two of them were already going in the same circles.</p>
<p>	It was hard to put a name to the complicated combination of feelings on Jack's face, but. It made Lean feel sad. He didn't want him to look at him that way. He didn't mean to make him feel bad. The things he said weren't Jack's fault. There was just no helping any of it.</p>
<p>	At least the next Jack would forget their conversation...</p>
<p>	“Yeah. You're right,” Jack said quietly. His gaze remained fixed on him. “I don't know what it's been like for you. I'm sure that even if I tried, my imagination couldn't even come close. So I won't say that I wish I had the ability to remember everything like you. Those would just be empty words. I try to avoid saying unnecessary things like that.”</p>
<p>	Lean weakly nodded.</p>
<p>	Even if it didn't help to bring them any closer, it was nice to at least hear an acknowledgment of the distance that separated their experiences.</p>
<p>	“Maybe I chose the wrong words. I'm stupid, you know? When I said that you should accept the way things are... Maybe that word means something else to me?” His gaze drifted and fell away to somewhere unseen, like he was searching for a way to explain. “Rather than 'accept', hm... Maybe 'peace?' Finding peace of mind.”</p>
<p>	“But-”</p>
<p>	Jack stopped him, holding up a hand.</p>
<p>	“That still isn't good enough, right? I know it sounds impossible... It's hard. I try to make it look easy, but it's always there. I can't look away from it. So maybe that's why? I look at it, and I say, 'I know you're there.' Then it doesn't have to beg for my attention. I know that the world will end. I know that people will die. So I don't have to think about those things. They just become facts to me like any other. I don't know if that makes it hurt less, but at least... I don't feel despair for it.”</p>
<p>	Peace of mind...</p>
<p>	Like watching as a tidal wave comes, unable to stop it...</p>
<p>	That might've made it a little clearer. To Jack, the end of the world was like a natural disaster, an unstoppable force of nature. The only thing that could stop a storm was a god – like Mother... or an ascended being like Agito.</p>
<p>	At the point that you'd been swallowed by the wave, was there any point in crying? You could struggle, but... Your only means of salvation would rest in your own insufficient strength – or in luck.</p>
<p>	“Is that why you mentioned the Representative...?” Lean wondered aloud.</p>
<p>	Luck...</p>
<p>	No, it wasn't anything like luck. Mother decided to place her bets on the possibilities witnessed by Miyu. There was nothing coincidental about that.</p>
<p>	It was possible that their actions would make no difference. Millions of the worlds ahead of them were probably still filled with the same tragedies that had happened in all of the worlds of the past. But in one of them, somewhere... The possibility glimpsed by Miyu was coming true.</p>
<p>	There was no way of knowing if that was the truth, and after suffering for countless worlds, it was hard to believe in anything, but...</p>
<p>	It was something.</p>
<p>	Maybe there really wasn't anything they could do – but maybe that was how it was supposed to be. The future may not have been theirs to save.</p>
<p>	If that really was the case, then...</p>
<p>	“Jack...” His chest felt tight. All of that time he spent trying to save the world... He was still afraid of letting it all be for nothing. “Are you going to give up on trying to become Agito?”</p>
<p>	The surprised smile Jack gave him seemed to come from a real place.</p>
<p>	“Of course not,” he said. “Each one of us has our own power, right? You, too. What the hell does Mother know? No one loves mankind more than you and Tiz. We may not be able to save the world with the powers we have... But that doesn't mean they make us less deserving of being called 'Agito.' The real Agito may come and save us someday with their power, but where were they when you were suffering? Here and now, the powers we have mean something to the time we're spending together.”</p>
<p>	Lean was glad he still had his glasses off. He felt tears starting to sting the corners of his eyes.</p>
<p>	He didn't know why he'd never thought about it like that... Was it because it was so simple? It felt like everything always had to be more complicated. If something couldn't save the world, it was a waste – that was what he'd thought. But when Jack put it that way, Lean could plainly see how wrong it was to think that way.</p>
<p>	How much more miserable would the world have been without Deuce's Kindness? Rem's Love?</p>
<p>	When he looked at it that way, he didn't even have to question his own Suffering...</p>
<p>	Because of his pain, he felt their powers even more profoundly.</p>
<p>	“Your Ignorance may be the most brilliant power there is,” he said, laughing through the tears that slipped down his cheeks. “Maybe you should start a class of your own and start teaching other cadets how to think like you. If we're really just going to be waiting for Agito, then that could be useful. If everybody thought like you, we could probably achieve world peace. It'll all be ruined in the end, but it would be worth it just to see the look on the Judge's face.”</p>
<p>	“Would the Judge even bother showing up if people aren't killing each other?” Jack wondered, tapping a finger against his chin. He laughed, a little bitterly. “Eh, I know how it works... Peace isn't what they want, is it?”</p>
<p>	Lean sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Yeah... The war is part of the plan. We can't get around that.”</p>
<p>	“Forget world peace, then~” Jack softly placed a hand over Lean's chest and kissed his damp cheek. “Even if the fighting doesn't stop, each person can find peace within themselves. You know what I mean now, right? Something like that.”</p>
<p>	If everyone could be like Jack, then everyone would be able to smile in the midst of chaos. There’d be no hard feelings; <i>“You have to die now.” “Alright. See you next time!”</i></p>
<p>	It sounded insane. That wasn't the way the world was supposed to work.</p>
<p>	But it was the solution Jack found.</p>
<p>	Rather than saving the world, it was like his entire existence fought to change it, to make the world conform comfortably to its unnatural constraints.</p>
<p>	“You'll get to see the next world, but this world is probably the only one I'll ever know, so that's why I gotta enjoy it while I can. I'm not gonna let myself get bent out of shape over what's gonna happen,” Jack said.</p>
<p>	“But, you'll-”</p>
<p>	“I know. I don't wanna die. But everybody dies eventually, Lean. Someday, even you'll die.” At that moment, his face looked so kind, adorned with the gentlest smile. “I don't want you to hurt anymore, but... I don't want you to look forward to something like that, either.”</p>
<p>	Jack was right...</p>
<p>	Someday, if the real Agito really came to save them, then he'd die one day and be reborn. He'd probably lose his ability to remember everything and forget about the millions of previous worlds he'd experienced... It was an extremely scary thought. There was a chance that he would still find his way back together with everyone, but he couldn't be sure of that. He wasn't even sure whether he'd been meant to be with them in the first place.</p>
<p>	Simply, his reborn life would be a new life.</p>
<p>	Jack wanted him to enjoy the one he had. If he didn't, then... He really might as well have been dead already.</p>
<p>	“Jack, thank you. I know you don't like to think about unpleasant things like this, so I appreciate that you were willing to talk with me.”</p>
<p>	“You feel better now~?” he asked, gently taking one of his hands.</p>
<p>	Lean squeezed his hand in return. “Well, I don't feel totally hopeless now. That's a start.”</p>
<p>	“Shall we resume our cuddling~?” Jack asked, his smile turning into a cheesy grin as he scooted closer and slipped his arm back around Lean's waist.</p>
<p>	“You're so-...” Lean paused and sighed, shaking his head. “I can't call you predictable. Honestly, I don't understand you at all sometimes. But... I love the way you are. And I'm glad you're always like this – in every world. You're very special, Jack.”</p>
<p>	With a bashful laugh, Jack clumsily tried to wave off his compliment as if it was nothing, but Lean could tell how touched he was. The happiness on his face wasn't pretend at all. There weren't many people who understood Jack – even his own siblings seemed distant from him most of the time... But understanding was overrated. Jack was one of a kind. It was probably impossible for any two people to perfectly see eye-to-eye, anyway.</p>
<p>	Lean just wanted to watch him, the same way he always had. He just wanted to appreciate him for his unrelenting optimism.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	For a coward, he was awfully brave.</p>
<p>	For an idiot, he was awfully wise.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	Even if Agito never came... Jack had already prevented the world from collapsing. He was holding up everyone's hearts by himself. His smile made even a doomed world feel like it was worth living in.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	Feeling warmth in his chest, Lean pressed his forehead against Jack's and closed his eyes.</p>
<p>	“I love you...”</p>
<p>	He heard a sharp intake of breath and quickly opened his eyes in worry, but he just found Jack with a red face and trembling lips. His eyes skittishly darted away.</p>
<p>	“I... I love you, too...!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	Oh.</p>
<p>	Was that the first time he told him in that world?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	“I feel like I've told you that so many times, but... I mean it still. Every time. More and more.”</p>
<p>	“You've really thrown me off my groove, I hope you know...” Pouting, Jack drew a finger around Lean's chest, still stubbornly avoiding eye contact. “I can't act like myself when you go saying serious stuff like that~”</p>
<p>	“Oh? Is there some kind of problem with telling my boyfriend that I love him...?”</p>
<p>	Jack flailed wildly and rolled across the bed. “Ahhhh~! Stop~! You can't just say things like that out loud! My heart's not prepaaared~!”</p>
<p>	As he came rolling back in Lean's direction, Lean grabbed him and pulled him back into a hug. He just laughed and held him there, enjoying the welcomed change in atmosphere. He knew that the world was going to end – it hadn't even been moved to the back of his mind – but he noticed that he wasn't able to worry about it in the same way he normally would have. That silly, comfortable moment overpowered any negative feelings.</p>
<p>	He hadn't felt that way in a long, long time...</p>
<p>	“It's okay,” he said, simply thinking out loud. He rested his chin on Jack's shoulder and held him tightly around the waist. “Even if it's not okay, that's okay, too, isn't it?”</p>
<p>	Jack turned his head to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Now you're learning~ Maybe I really should become a teacher...? Some kind of guru. ...Mr. Jack? Eugh, that sounds so stupid and lame.”</p>
<p>	“You're a swordsman. Your students would call you Master.”</p>
<p>	“Master...!” His eyes lit up and he wiggled his feet excitedly. “I like that! That'd make me sound so experienced~”</p>
<p>	“You are, though,” Lean said, laughing. It was like Jack seriously didn't even know his own strength. “What, haven't you realized that everything I know about the sword came from observing you? I used to be an engineer first and foremost. Then an MA pilot. <i>Then</i> a swordsman. In that order. Now I guess I'm more like a spy and a part time swordsman.”</p>
<p>	Fighting alongside Class Zero was a lot different from trailing behind them under a cloak of invisibility, helping out only when he had to. A part of him worried that Mother was watching him with a sneer. Despite his unfathomable number of years in existence, he still couldn't reach the level of strength Class Zero possessed. He tried to apply what he learned from watching, but he was still more comfortable using magic from a distance.</p>
<p>	Maybe he was just holding them back... He was like a cheap imitation.</p>
<p>	“Wow,” Jack breathed, sounding genuinely astonished. “I'm so honored~ Want me to give you official lessons? You could be a master like me in no time! ...I don't really think about how I fight, though, so it might be kinda hard to teach someone else...”</p>
<p>	“You'd really teach me?”</p>
<p>	Their cuddling must've had an effect on Jack. His eyelids suddenly seemed to be getting heavier.</p>
<p>	“Myeah,” he mumbled. “I could try, as long as you don't mind trying to follow along.”</p>
<p>	Did fighting even matter if they couldn't save the world? ...Maybe they were actually training to protect it once it had been saved. If nothing else, thinking about it that way made Lean feel like he still had something to strive for. He was confident that Jack was already strong enough to protect the world from anything – unstoppable forces of nature aside. He would've been honored to learn from him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	It was funny.</p>
<p>	When he wasn't holding a sword, he just looked like an adorable, harmless boy.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>	“Jack, if you're going to fall asleep, you should take your uniform off.”</p>
<p>	“Nnm... Heheh... Sexy~”</p>
<p>	He was already talking in his sleep, wasn't he?</p>
<p>	“I'm undressing you, <i>Master.</i>”</p>
<p>	He smacked his lips. “Okaaay~”</p>
<p>	Rolling his eyes, Lean dragged him up to the pillows and started undressing him one article at a time. His arms and legs were as heavy as lead. “I'm going to make you wake up in an hour to study.”</p>
<p>	Jack's eyes snapped open and he was suddenly wide awake. “Noooo~! Let me sleeeep!! It's already late, isn't it~?”</p>
<p>	“It's four o'clock.”</p>
<p>	“That's my bedtime~,” he crooned, pawing at Lean as he continued to undress him, unperturbed. “Come on, don't you want me to be well rested so I can teach you~?”</p>
<p>	“When? At midnight?” The Arena wasn't even open that late.</p>
<p>	Unable to argue any further, Jack just pouted and wriggled out of Lean's hands to burrow under the covers like a frightened animal in a thunderstorm. He was really more afraid of studying than he was of the end of the world... Lean couldn't help but be impressed by his priorities. ...But he really did want to see what it would be like to learn from the master himself, so he was going to stick to his word and wake him up whether Jack liked it or not. Something told him that any 'lesson' from him would be impossible to follow, but it was bound to be interesting.</p>
<p>	Gently, he pet Jack's hair and placed a kiss to the top of his coiffed head.</p>
<p>	“Sleep tight, silly,” he said softly before getting up to do his own homework.</p>
<p>	“Nmmgnh...”</p>
<p>	Having something besides the end of the world to look forward to...</p>
<p>	Lean chuckled to himself.</p>
<p>	What an exciting concept.</p>
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